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REQ: Hive construction plans/dimensions

Okay, so... I'm going to attempt to build one of each type of beehive in relatively common usage around the world. (Yeah, I know big task, so I'm not going to do it all at once.) I already have plans and/or dimensions for the following hive types:

* Zander
* German National
* Norwegian "trough" hive
* anything else I might be forgetting, including those designed for the asiatic honeybee

Language of the plans doesn't matter if accompanied by even half-decent drawings. I've already pretty much decided that horizontal top-bar hives come is such a bewildering variety that I'm not going to mess much with them.

I got to see a hive for apis ceranae up close - looked like a bird house to me. They are also kept in hollowed logs (verticle) with what amounts to top bars. All frames are foundationless (no suprise) Brood frames are commonly wired to support cutting out the honey arches.

The Zander hives proposed by “AG Magazinimker” is actually NOT the one originally published by Zander. Zander has been at a scientific/educational bee research institute approx. 1930-1950 and has been the first proposing extensive migrations in central Europe. His hive was one of the first in Germany which was worked from top instead of from behind. However, he still used legs and roofs if hives were placed as singles (breeding hives). I’ll try to scan few pics from his old book next days.

Re: REQ: Hive construction plans/dimensions

Design by Belgian professor Roch Domergo. This is another not-popular hive, but it is distinctive in two ways: 1- It is designed specifically to house the smaller African honeybee (Apis Mellifera Africanus) and, 2- It is the most recently designed hive on this list, having been concieved in 1980.

1980, Rwanda: Professor Roch Domerego visits to discuss bees and beekeeping with local monks. The local honey bee, apis melifera adansonii, is well known for its defensiveness and local beekeepers have difficulty working their Langstroth beehives due to this. Prof. Domerego visits feral hives and notes a reduced amount of defensiveness at the hives, allowing him to count and measure. He takes notes and works with a local carpenter to develop an affordable beehive with all of the capabilities, in terms of advanced manipulations, of a Langstroth beehive. It's decided that the lowest cost way to build it is to use a single size of board and glue such slats together to make the solid walls.

The real, key feature of this beehive is the smaller bee-space. The African bee is smaller than its European counterparts and does not get along well in the same space. By reducing the bee-space to 31/32mm, the bees calmed enough to be workable. Now, bees are being selected for gentleness, among other traits. The hive is affordable and it does offer the capability of all the advanced manipulations available to Langstroth and other framed hive types. Hats off to Prof. Domerego!